bicicletta a firenze....florence by bike

For those of you who follow my blog regularly, you know I love to try to capture candid photos of locals when I'm traveling. I think it's so interesting to see how the locals live. And while I was in Florence, the one things that struck me as a definite quality of the locals was bicycling: going to and fro around town, getting to work and back home, and running errands. And in a city where the streets are predominately flat, but extremely narrow, and parking spots are few and far between, cycling does make the most sense. Here are a few shots I captured of the bicycling culture in Florence. One last thing, check out the nice shoes - especially the womens' - sported in these photos! Form over function!  

candid in miami

One of my favorite things about photography is capturing candid shots, especially in cities where I can play tourist. My recent visit to Miami didn't disappointment - hope you enjoy these two as much as I do.  

sitting, waiting, watching...

an old man and the sea

inspired

"Make the most of yourself, 

for that is all there is of you." 

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

We're a week into the new the new year, and I've decided to change up my Saturday posts to focus on being inspired. What inspires you? For me, I find great inspiration from my surroundings, especially when I find beauty in them, in other words by being present and noticing what is around me I am so often inspired. Here are a few images of people, places, and things that have inspired me...

 in a Paris park -
I adore her attention to details
and how cute are her shoes!?

noticing a robin that blends right in

perhaps nothing inspires me more than a
walk through a beautiful garden

on vacation,
a quiet sitting area inspires me
to create this type of oasis
 right at home

San Francisco's Chinatown, part 2

One of my favorite aspects of San Francisco's Chinatown is that it's a real neighborhood with real people living and working. There's nothing fake about it. 

When I travel, I try to take candid shots of locals, which can be challenging for me, because I never want to intrude, so I try my best to be quite sly about taking pictures of strangers. I still have work to do to get better at this! Here are a few photos I did manage to shoot of a few Chinatown denizens. I think each speaks volumes about the vibrant community that is San Francisco's Chinatown.

elderly man waiting
to cross the street -
look at his face,
what do you see?

it might be hard to tell what's going on here - but,
it's a back alley game of badminton!
these boys were so fun to watch

locals out grocery shopping

an elderly lady -
I think she was going home
I like her pants!  :-)

candid in Cordoba

I love it when I can capture a "real-life" scene while on vacation.  I took this picture in Cordoba, Spain this past November.  I remember hearing the bikes, turning around, and quickly snapping this with my camera.  I feel so lucky that the photo turned out.  These two kids, probably on their way home from school, were as cute as cute can be.  Check out the little girl's eye glasses - coordinating perfectly with her Adidas track pants.  Throw in those pigtails, and what a look...love it!  I thoroughly enjoyed watching these two.  I wonder what kind of delicious treat was waiting for them at home...

hurry home!